Office
by Red-the-Mudkip
Summary: Ema's bored one day and decides to visit Phoenix's office, only to find the defense attorney sound asleep...


_**OFFICE**_

_March 27th__, 10:30 AM. Skye family residence._

Scientifically speaking, spring vacation is _bo-ring_. That's what I kept repeating to myself as I sat on my bed, constantly smoothing the wrinkles on the pink sheets. I had woken up a _long_ time ago, and I was already dressed in my favorite dark blue dress with gold buttons and my lab coat. A pair of white-rimmed glasses with pink lenses was nestled in my golden-brown hair, and I had a bottle of Luminol in one hand. I was home alone, since my sister Lana was off at the Prosecutor's Office, where she worked. There was nothing to do, and we had run out of Snackoos for me to munch on. The _Pink Princess_ TV show wasn't on at this hour, either. Worst of all, I had already finished reading Lana's book on scientific investigation…

Oh, wait! Sorry for not introducing myself earlier. I'm Ema Skye, a fifteen-year-old girl (almost sixteen!) who lives in Los Angeles. My life is usually boring, but I like to make it more exciting with some _science_! I love science, all kinds, and I love investigating things…_scientifically_.

Okay, so in order to keep myself from being bored…I decided to go over what had happened in the past few days. Let's see…mostly I'd been worried about Lana being arrested for a murder. But then, luckily, a man named Phoenix Wright—

…Wait. Phoenix Wright? Of course! I could go visit Phoenix Wright at his office! I'm sure he'd be over there, sitting at his desk and looking all professional like he was when I first visited him…

I jumped off my bed, snatched my Pink Princess bag, stuffed the Luminol into the bag, and then dashed out the door. The streets were kinda…packed with cars, like usual. Since I was walking, the traffic wouldn't be an issue for me. Thank God for sidewalks. Now…what was the way to Phoenix's office?

_March 27th, 10:50 AM. Wright & Co. Law Offices._

I stood in front of the dark gray building, examining it. It didn't look too different from the last time I visited. In fact, I don't think there was _any_ difference. I walked up the short steps leading to the door and knocked. It seemed as if hours had passed, though I know that it had been only a few minutes, but there was still no answer. I held my breath, reaching out for the doorknob. I turned it.

It was unlocked.

At this point, worry began to fill me. Where could Phoenix have gone if he had left the door unlocked? Had something happened to him? Should I have dusted the doorknob for fingerprints before entering? What was inside…?

As I stepped into the lobby, I half-expected there to be the smell of blood and a dead man slumped under the window with his killer's name written on a receipt by his side—I cut off my own thoughts, shaking my head and saying to myself that my imagination was too wild. Once I was fully inside the building, I looked around. It was pretty normal…the couch was there, the bookshelves were there…but maybe it would be best to take a look deeper inside? I rummaged around in my bag, reaching for some fingerprint powder and my bottle of Luminol. I put my pink-tinted glasses on. This was _serious scientific business_.

I opened the door to Phoenix's room slightly. My heart began to pound. What was on the other side of the wall? Once the door was completely open, I let out a relieved sigh. The same Steel Samurai poster was against the wall, and there were still the well-read law books crammed into the shelves, and there was still the same old desk that I had looked at while Phoenix and I were working together. I lowered my eyes and smiled, remembering just a few days ago, when I had found the man's diary and had begun to read some of it whenever we visited his office.

"_What are you doing?" he would ask. I would hastily shut the book, turn away, and blush._

"_Nothing," I would reply. "I'm just…umm…studying history! You know, h-how George Washington was…the first king of America, and all!"_

_He'd look at me skeptically. "Wasn't Washington a president?"_

_And then I'd blush even harder._

I let out a very quiet laugh after standing still and remembering. "Anyway," I said to myself, pushing the thought aside and looking up, "I'm going to investigate this place—"

I gasped, covering my mouth with a hand and adjusting my glasses with the other. Slumped on the chair was a very familiar-looking man with spiky black hair. His blue suit was kind of wrinkled, and his tie was almost falling off. His eyes were shut, and he was obviously asleep. It was, of course, Phoenix Wright. He looked like a total _mess_! I sighed. He probably wasn't expecting visitors…so had I done the right thing to open the door and walk in?

My conscience was screaming at me to turn around and walk out of the building, but my curious side was telling me otherwise. After all, Phoenix's life sounded so _intriguing_, and here I was, with the chance to investigate it…_scientifically_! My hands gripped the Luminol and fingerprint powder tightly. Time to get to work and investigate this place.

This all needed to be quiet, in case I accidentally woke the lawyer up…I crept closer to the desk, looking for something that looked fun to investigate. Let's see…there were a few boring books scattered around, whose titles were a string of big words that I supposed only attorneys could understand, and then there was a vase of flowers…ooh, there was a _greeting card_ attached to one of the flowers! After setting my fingerprint dust and bottle of Luminol on the desk, I opened it, careful not to awaken my friend. On the inside of the pristine white card were a few lines of handwriting that looked as if it had been written in a rush. I decided to read the message.

_Hi, Nick! These are for you! I heard that you just won another case! Congrats! How are you doing over there? And if you're going to ask about me, I'll just tell you: WE HAVE NO BURGERS! It's terrible! Now I feel really grateful to you for taking me out for burgers all the time! And by the way, I'm training really hard to become an all-out spirit medium, Nick. Wish me luck, and have fun with your lawyer stuff!_

_-Maya Fey_

After reading the letter, I was a little shocked. What did it mean by _spirit mediums_? Was Phoenix from some ancient tribe of lawyers that called upon the spirits of their mentors whenever they had trouble in one of their trials—Oh, boy…there went my imagination again. And then there was the revelation of Phoenix having a _relationship_—I shook my head, trying not to think of _that_ kind of relationship, even though I strongly suspected it because she had sent him _flowers_—with Maya Fey? Of course, it was completely normal for _me_ to know Maya (even though I had only seen her once and at that time she had only said hi to me), since Lana was friends with her older sister Mia—oh, wait. He must've known Maya since Mia was his mentor. I giggled, remembering when I had mistaken Phoenix for Mia…speaking of which, where had Mia gone, anyway?

I sighed. So, now that I was done ranting to myself about sisters and friends and flowers and cards and relationships, it was time to get _serious_. In other words, time to spray Luminol all over Phoenix's room. I picked up the spray bottle and decided to start with the floor by the window.

After spraying, the results were very…surprising. I gasped, adjusting my glasses and even wiping them to make sure I was seeing things right…

…Because the area of carpet surrounding the window looking out to the street and the Gatewater Hotel…was a pool of _blood_. A lot of questions popped into my head, but the big questions were whose blood it was, how it had gotten there, and _when_ it had gotten there. I suddenly got nervous. I knew I could just ask Phoenix what had happened, but I wondered if he even knew the answer, or if he was comfortable talking about it. Furthermore, if I woke him up, what would his reaction be to me sneaking into his office and touching what I shouldn't be touching? It wasn't simple for me to just take a sample of the blood and test it for who it belonged to—after all, the blood could be _years_ old…

I sighed. "Maybe I should stop thinking about this for a while…"

I decided to take a look at all the law books and case files on the bookshelves that leaned against the walls. My fingers brushed the spines of various books. None of them looked interesting. I decided to look over the case files instead. Hmm…most of them were about murders. Boring. Just as I was about to turn away from the shelf, I noticed one file labeled "DL-6". The name sounded fairly familiar. I decided not to think too hard about it, so I turned around to find myself beside the sleeping Phoenix Wright. I began to debate with myself about whether or not I should awaken him…after all, it _was_ very immoral to just snoop around in the office of a friend. After a few thoughts thrown back and forth and the notion of me pointing my finger and yelling "OBJECTION" and having such an intense look on my face that I would scare the living daylights out of everyone just like Phoenix always did, I decided to wake my lawyer friend up. Here went nothing.

I approached his chair and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Phoenix?" I whispered.

He continued sleeping. Maybe I should be a little louder?

"Phoenix…"

"Phoenix? Phoenix! Phoenix! Phoenix Wright! Can you hear me?!"

This went on for a long while. No answer. It was getting a little annoying. Eventually, I had almost given up, when all of a sudden; I got the idea of screaming at the top of my lungs. I balled my fists. Here went nothing…

"_**PHOENIX WRIGHT, WAKE UP!**_" I yelled, punching the man in the arm. I swear, the walls were shaking and the Steel Samurai poster fell down. The vase nearly tipped over, too.

And at this point, the man's brown eyes had opened widely, and he had let out a shout almost as loud as mine. His head turned to my direction, and I could nearly hear his heart thumping.

"O-oh…E…Ema…" was all he could say. I really expected more from someone who had been sleeping through so many shouts. Phoenix rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"H-Hi, Ema," the man breathed, wincing as he put a hand over his arm. "What are you…doing here?"

He glanced around, as if trying to process where he was and what had happened. I took off my glasses and wiped them. How was I going to answer _that_? "Uh…I…well…maybe…ehe…"

The man shook his head and smirked, smoothing out his blue suit and picking up his tie, which had slipped and fallen to the ground. "Okay, then. Answer this for me. How did you get in?"

I looked down, feeling his eyes boring into me. Was _this_ how witnesses felt when Phoenix cross-examined them? I found myself at a loss for words. "Um…the…"

"The door was unlocked?"

I looked up and raised an eyebrow, wondering how he knew. "Y-Yeah."

"I thought so…Larry visited a few hours ago. He must've forgotten to lock it as he walked out…that's Larry, all right…"

I tilted my head. Who was Larry? I asked this question out loud.

Phoenix's eyes wandered over to the window. "He's…a friend of mine."

I followed his gaze, and then remembered the bloodstains. The nervous feeling returned. I finally mustered up the courage to ask him about it.

"Hey, Phoenix. Can I…ask you something?"

He looked at me, raising an eyebrow. He then glanced at the Luminol I held. "Yeah?"

I felt my heartbeat grow faster. "Uh…well…I kind of…sprayed the place with…"

"With Luminol?" he asked. I began to wonder how Phoenix knew, but before I bothered to answer that myself, I noticed his expression. Surprisingly, he didn't look mad at all. In fact, he kind of looked…troubled. In a way, he looked sad.

"Yes, I sprayed it with Luminol…and under the window…"

"…And under the window, you found bloodstains."

Jeez, this guy was good enough to be a detective! How'd he know? Well, it would've been easy for him to figure out, since my only use for Luminol was to find bloodstains, but I suspected there was another reason he knew. I decided to finally ask the question directly instead of trying to dance around it.

"So, Phoenix…" I looked him straight in the eyes. "How'd the blood get there?"

The man leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling. He shrugged. "It's a long story."

"Can you tell me? I'll listen."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "Okay, so it started one night just a few months ago. I came to the office…"

"Why?"

"Well, Mia called and said that her sister was coming over, and we could all go out for burgers. And when I arrived, I smelled blood..."

And, like Phoenix said, it was a long story. We stayed in the office for hours after that, him telling the_ very_ exciting story and me listening.

It felt like we were investigating crime scenes all over again.

* * *

**Author's Note/Update: A day or so after writing this, I decided to replay "Rise from the Ashes", and then I realized that it took place two months after "Turnabout Goodbyes"...meaning this would probably take place somewhere in late March/early April, and during E****ma's spring break...which is, in real life, supposed to be right now. xD Ah, if only it was 2017. So...I've just changed the date and a few words. And thank you, Guest, for reviewing!**


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